Alter-xmas

Well, it’s that time of year again…the time to celebrate something other than miracle, mystery and authority, guilt and submission (ie., xmas)…

 

This year I hereby proclaim the 1^st of February as “Celebration of Reality” day, wherein we celebrate the plenitude of life as we and those around us actually experience it. Wherein we celebrate all the joys and sorrows, all the triumphs and defeats, all the love and loathing that life offers us. Wherein we celebrate ourselves as decent beings, based on our acts, based on wanting to fulfill our desires without doing harm to anyone – at least as far as we are able. Wherein we realize that we are all worthy and good people deserving of love and respect – as long as we do not lose that worthiness through our own selfishness. That we start out neither better or worse, superior or inferior to anyone else. And wherein we realize that we do not have to invent whole other stories and explanations based on metaphysical fantasy and impossible-to-understand gods who tower above us and make us feel small, afraid, and bad about ourselves – not to mention hateful and distrustful towards others with other kinds of “god-stories”.

 

In short, “Celebration of Reality” day is a day for feeling ok with ourselves, with our world, in spite of all its faults and shortcomings, a day for reaffirming to ourselves, each and every one of us, our desire to be as decent and loving as possible, while recognizing ignorance and injustice, and being willing and able to work against it.